Following its inquiry into NHS England’s management of the primary care support service contract with Capita, this hard-hitting report from the NAO found that ‘NHS England did not know enough about the services it inherited to set achievable service specifications and performance standards from the start of the contract’. There were also a lack of appropriate performance measures – for example, simply measuring if payments were made on time but not if they were accurate.

The Data Protection Bill is currently going through Parliament. An amendment has been tabled which would exempt primary care providers from the definition of 'public authority', and therefore the blanket requirement to appoint a Data Protection Officer. We need your help to build support for the amendment.